Yes. That really is a VCR. If you don’t know what one is/have never used it, I don’t know if we can be friends. And yes, that really is our writing prompt for the week. To the Figgies, who looked at this and said “really, Mia?” I will admit, I was among them and said as much to our hostess with the mostest.

But then I got to thinking…

And that thinking generated a discussion. There is a magazine that I am a fan of called Holl & Lane. They right honest, kick you in the face stories about life, travel-I’ll get more into it and how you can get involved next post. (You guys get a two-fer today.) At any rate, they wrote an article about a charity called The Mend Project. You can also check them out on Facebook.

The article was about the charity’s founder. She was a survivor of not only childhood sexual abuse but a long-term emotionally abusive marriage. Oddly enough she was married exactly as long as I was and suffered through many of the same issues I did. I am an abuse survivor. Like the founder of The Mend Project, when I divorced I alienated friends and family because people did not believe me. There were no physical signs. The blog is not a place to get into details. They’re not stories I share openly but I will tell you this. If a survivor comes to you and is brave enough to tell you what they went through?

Believe them.

With time the days got better and I became a little more sure of myself. I grew and learned but I would not wish that sense of loneliness on anyone. The Mend Project was created to help survivors by a survivor.

Do me a favor, guys, click the links above, go look into that charity. Donate if you can.